In reply to David Roberson's message of Mon, 1 Feb 2016 11:48:25 -0500: Hi, [snip] >A thought. Before the star becomes a black hole it has plenty of mass located >at the center that can be measured just like in the case of our sun. Why >would this original mass be converted into energy in such a manner as to leave >the entire black hole empty of all mass?
An excellent point! I hadn't given it any thought. However I suspect that the very nature of space-time itself changes within the event horizon, so I'm not sure that matter is still viable. (I'm making this up as I go along. ;) > >At the very least I would expect the original matter to be retained. > >Would it be interesting to be an observer at the very moment that the mass of >a star becomes adequate to form a black hole? I can visualize that the >process is not smoothly carried out throughout the system. If I am right about the nature of black holes, then there has to be an instant at which the curvature of space becomes sufficient to force photons to follow a circular path. Before that instant, it's just a heavy star, after that instant, it suddenly turns black. [snip] Here's another brain teaser for you:- If the radius of a black hole is determined by it's mass, and it can have any radius, why can't even small amounts of mass collapse into black holes? (Something which obviously doesn't happen.) There must be a point at which the gravitational force exceeds the repulsive forces that keep matter stable, which implies a minimum size for a black hole to form. If Hawking radiation can shrink a black hole, then does that mean that once it shrinks below that critical size, it suddenly reverts to normal matter again? (Just thinking out loud.) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
